The United Nations Security Council, the supreme global body on issues of security and peace, will debate climate change for the first time on April 17. The United Kingdom wants the issue to be considered a matter of global concern, and will have Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett preside over the debate. In March, when the UK announced their intention to bring the issue to the agenda,China and Russia expressed some opposition to the holding the debate.Meanwhile, the United States had no opposition to considering the issue at the Security Council.
In preparation for the debate, the UK has circulated a concept paper arguing that climate change could provoke new wars, change borders, disrupt energy supplies and force mass migration. The paper outlines six areas where climate change could affect global security: border disputes, migration, energy supplies, other resource shortages, societal stress and humanitarian crises–with some estimates that up to 200 million people could be displaced by the middle of the century. (Image source: AP)
About Juan
Juan Hoffmaister, originally from Costa Rica, is active young leader working to bring the environmental and development agenda together. He formerly served as youth advisor to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and has represented youth perspectives on environmental negotiations worldwide. His work has been featured by NPR and other media outlets, and has recently completed a Watson Fellowship meeting comity leaders from across 4 continents responding to climate-induced disasters and water stress around the world through community-based adaptation. He has been an active advocate in UN negotiations since 2005, and he believes that the industrialized nations have the responsibility of helping the poor and vulnerable cope with the impacts of our changing climates, and he is currently working with youth from around the world in creating a new international agreement to keep the planet cool. On his spare time, he enjoys diving, reading, and drinking coffee. More @ ChangingClimates.info
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Are there organizations for helping citizens around the world to lobby the United Nations? There could be all sorts of avenues for public influence at the United Nations and other world bodies, but I don’t know of any orgs. that actively cultivate and use those avenues.